The present invention relates, to a modular system for setting up furniture, racks, frameworks and the like, especially office working-place equipment and the like, comprising a plurality of components which are adapted to be interconnected by supporting members and retaining members and to be mounted on stands at certain levels above ground.
It is the objective of known systems of this kind (DE-OS 3,135,576) to realize highly versatile furniture which optimally satisfies the objective and subjective demands of the users. Systems of this kind start from the concept that such modular systems for furniture should be able to set up working places for any conceivable occupational group rapidly and economically, such furniture including, for instance, desks, filing cabinets, conference tables, shelves, side tables, boxes, cabinets for office supplies, chairs and the like, and in addition to that it should be possible to readily adapt these articles to varying working or working place conditions. Such adaptations are especially necessary in the case of equipment for data processing, since computer tables, for example, should remain usable already for economic reasons even though the computers and accessories are subject to rapid changes due to the fast development in this field. Since even relatively small companies today make use of computer controlled machines, the furniture for personnel should be adaptable to terminals, monitors, printers and the like while still necessary working areas for other activities should not be excessively restricted thereby.
Although the modular system of the species-forming kind offers a solution of these objectives by means of special supporting and frame devices which are used to retain various components, this solution does not meet every conceivable design and in particular renders the system rather expensive in respect of the required structural elements.
From the U.S. Pat. Specification No. 3,666,339 a furniture design is known which permits limited adaptation of certain articles of furniture to their respective intended use, for example a metal desk provided with a clip-on attachment which is connected to the corners of a desk top for providing a desk working place. But this structure does not offer the possibilities of a modular system, and in addition to that it does not possess the necessary versatility typical for the setting up of any desired articles of furniture from a relatively small number of basic elements.